I know there's been some discussion on this at various sources but what are the latest strategies to prepare for, and deal with this type of scenario? Specifically, what are the specific actions that one can take so he can continue to transact with bitcoin?

Do they require me to give withdraw access to my bank account? Or can I just allow them deposit only?

To use Coinbase for buying or selling coins you would link a bank account, just like you would with PayPal or Dwolla. That link allows Coinbase to push funds to you as well as pull from you. They do not provide a method to link for only pushing funds to your account.

They are a startup that has a lot investment backing (as far as bitcoin startups go).

Not that this will help anyone find who did it, but just to let you know that I got no help from paypal even though I sold the bitcoins with a tangible item and a delivery confirmation number

I'm just curious about the details here. So the recipient had to redeem the funds? (.e.g, Mt. Gox redeemable code, or private key, or Instawallet URL) that was delivered, or did you send the coins some other method?

Coinbase uses ACH bank transfers to move funds for your purchase of coins. Coinbase gives you access to your coins after the ACH clears. They are not generally sitting on your money for days without processing the coins. ACH is slow. It will be three or four business days. Your only alternative in the U.S. to use ACH is Dwolla. Guess what the biggest complaint there is too? Getting cash moved from your bank account to Dwolla is slow ... it takes three to five business days. Hey ... what a coincidence! Maybe it isn't Coinbase or Dwolla that is the problem, but ACH instead?

Bitcoin-Central now has a BTC/GBP market. The problem is with liquidity, but that liquidity problem appears mostly to be a problem for buyers. Sellers can find a bid roughly at where the BTC/USD is at Mt. Gox after considering the exchange rate for GBP/USD. The withdrawal from Bitcoin-Central's French bank to you is where an expensive might be higher than you'ld prefer, but for a larger withdrawal transaction this may not be all that significant. - http://www.Bitcoin-Central.net

For smaller amounts (e.g., where wire fee isn't justified by the amount being transferred), VirWoX to Moneybookers is a method some people like. FastCash4Bitcoins cash-out to PayPal is another.

Another method is currently unavailable but it may be re-opened at some point:

If it was the case of a typo in the e-mail address, hopefully it was not a valid e-mail address and nobody has claimed the funds.

And whether it was a valid address or not, if they are asked to redeem it to a different address, I could see there being a number of steps before acknowledging that simply because they need to ensure they are sending it to the right party.

Bought some coins a day ago received an email stating they have been sent and a link to the lockchain to confirm they have been. I got them sent to an address from coinapult.com but am still waiting for an email off them for me to collect payload. One thing that crossed my mind as the reason why I haven't received it is that I may have mispelt my email address on coinapult. I'm am yet to hear back from coinapult and am worried I have lost my coins :S

Can someone help me please?

You are describing two separate services here?

So it sounds like you are using Coinapult's e-mail wallet service. So before you used the exchange service you first went to Coinapult.com and put in your own e-mail address for the To: field. Then it presented you with the Bitcoin address to "Load Bitcoins" and that is what you later used with the exchange service?

Then at the exchange service where you bought coins you provided the "Load Bitcoins" address from Coinapult? And then when you look at the blockchain you can see that the transaction from the exchange truly did occur (and confirm with 6 or more confirmations)?

If all that is correct, then yes -- Coinapult would have received your coins and normally sent off the e-mail with instructions to access that wallet.

If the funding transaction from the exchange has confirmed (and you said it was a day ago, so that likely has occurred) and you didn't receive any e-mail from Coinapult, the most likely scenario is that the message is in your spam folder.

If that isn't the case, then if you suspect there is a possibility is that you made a typo on the e-mail address, or any other reason, your next step would be to contact Coinapult support: